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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Two UFC events have seen fighters swap out from one another, as Hector Lombard is now on his way to UFC 149 in Calgary. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua had already been pulled from UFC 149 to fill Lombard's slot in the headliner of the UFC on Fox 4 card on August 4, and now Lombard will move to the July event after an injury to Michael Bisping.
Bisping's removal from the July 21 event sees the former Bellator Middleweight Champion stepping up and moving his UFC debut ahead two weeks to take on Tim Boetsch on the pay-per-view event.
Lombard hasn't lost a bout in 25 fights, dating back almost six years. Boetsch, meanwhile, is unbeaten since moving to the middleweight division, and enters this card off a come from behind knockout win over Yushin Okami.
Penick's Analysis: The funny part about this switch is that fans were looking at Bisping as a potential name to move to the UFC on Fox 4 against Lombard, and now Lombard is replacing him a couple weeks earlier. This actually makes for a really fantastic middleweight fight, and a huge challenge for Lombard in his UFC debut and for Boetsch as he continues to try to move up the ladder. It's a bummer to lose Bisping from the card, as his bout with Boetsch would have been quite interesting, but this is one of those cases where the replacement is just as good as the originally scheduled bout.
[Hector Lombard photo (c) Henry Dziekan III]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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